Boycotting Democrats pledge to return to Indiana House on Monday

INDIANAPOLIS - While the state Senate debated amendments to the "right to work" measure Friday, Democrats who have refused to come to the floor of the Indiana House say they'll finally return at "high noon" Monday to do the same.

Their goal: Forcing Republicans to vote on whether to send the issue to a statewide referendum – a move so uncommon that Indiana hasn't had one to decide a legislative issue in the last five decades.

"We want the debate to be whether or not the people should have a voice in this," said the man who has orchestrated eight days of boycotts in the first three weeks of this year's legislative session, House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.

It was a pledge of participation that meant little to Republicans who have hefty majorities in both the House and the Senate.

Though a legal challenge has called into question his ability to collect them, Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has imposed $1,000-a-day fines on the absent Democrats for three consecutive days.

He said since Bauer had already rescinded an earlier promise to participate this week, he's not sure whether he can trust Democrats to be on the floor Monday. But, he said, he is hopeful.

All of that came after an odd exchange between Bosma and Bauer on the House floor Friday morning.

Bauer had said Democrats were staying out because they needed time to craft the referendum amendment they hoped to propose to the "right to work" bill because a non-partisan analysis had called the constitutionality of their first draft into question.

By Friday morning, they'd finished that new version of the amendment, and they'd filed it. They wanted guarantees that Bosma would allow it to move forward without calling into question its constitutionality.

Bosma said, no problem. He asked that any House member who had any intention of raising procedural questions to stand up and identify themselves – and no one did.

Bosma then turned to Bauer to ask whether that was sufficient. Bauer said he'd return to his caucus to talk it out, and when Bosma asked whether he could expect Democrats on the floor later in the day Friday, Bauer said: "We'll see."

The answer later became "no." Bauer said Democrats "want the weekend" to make sure Hoosiers understand what they intend to offer – and that it's a viable alternative to having lawmakers approve a measure that would take effect March 14.

The new Democratic amendment was an attempt to get around Indiana Constitution requirements that laws be made by the General Assembly, and not by voters in a ballot question.

The Democratic amendment would work this way: It would delay the "right to work" law from taking effect until Nov. 5. Then, in the Nov. 6 election, voters would decide whether to keep it. If they vote against the "right to work" law, it would sunset on Nov. 7; if they vote yes, it would remain in effect.

"It's always been about eliminating the excuse for Republican members," said Rep. Scott Pelath of Michigan City, the No. 2-ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Republicans called the whole thing silly.

"It's been a red herring, a ghost behind a door, all week, that they want us to rule something's constitutional or not," Bosma said.

In the Senate, the same amendment that House Democrats were offering was debated Friday.

"It's really about letting the public weigh in on this issue. It's really about hearing from the people," said Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville.

"I don't think that's too much to ask. We ask them about gaming, we ask them about school building, we ask them about lots of things in Indiana. That doesn't make us California. I like the process we have in Indiana, but once in a while, there's an issue that comes along that has more of an impact on people."

Republicans balked. Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, said without case law, the amendment was "deeply constitutionally suspect on its face."

Their lobbying was not enough in a chamber where Republicans hold 37 of the 50 seats. The amendment was rejected, 36-14, with Sen. Vaneta Becker of Evansville, being the only Republican to break rank.

While the Senate rejected all eight amendments Democrats offered, it did fold three of the four that Republicans introduced into the bill.

The one Republican-offered amendment that was defeated, 12-38, was the biggest one: An effort by Sen. Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood, to exempt building and construction trades, which he said makes up 15 percent of the unionized workforce.

The fight is over whether Indiana should become the 23rd state to allow workers in union shops to opt out of paying mandatory dues to those unions as a condition of employment.

Majority Republicans and their business lobby backers say that would give workers freedom of choice and companies a new incentive to locate to the state. Minority Democrats and their labor allies say it would undermine the unions that protect those workers' wages and rights.

The entire legislative process is ground to a halt because 35 House Democrats are boycotting. That prevents the chamber where Republicans hold 60 of the 100 seats from having the two-thirds quorum mandatory in order to do any business.

In an effort to draw them back quickly, Bosma is fining House Democrats $1,000 per day they miss, and that money is being docked from their weekly "per diem" paychecks.

However, Democrats are arguing in court that the speaker has no authority to collect the fines by ordering the state auditor to slice the money out of their paychecks.

Marion County Superior Court Judge David Dreyer on Thursday green-lighted a temporary restraining order, which bars the fines from being implemented against three House Democrats who filed a lawsuit.

He has scheduled a hearing to further consider the matter on Jan. 27. On Friday, 28 other Democrats joined the lawsuit.